Day: June 24, 2021

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Health Ministry has outlined a target to administer two million COVID-19 vaccine doses per day, commencing from the second half of 2021.

“It should be increased to two million shots per day, as compared to 700 thousand jabs per day earlier,” Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated at the opening of the COVID-19 vaccination center in cooperation with the Indonesian Insurance Association (AAUI) here on Thursday.

Sadikin spoke of President Joko Widodo having tasked the ministry with offering COVID-19 vaccination to 181.5 million Indonesians above 18 years of age.

The ministry will require 363 million vaccine doses to achieve the target. “Vaccine availability across the world has become an issue, as there are only five vaccine producing countries. Not all countries have access to the vaccine,” he pointed out.

During the initial six months of the year, Indonesia had received 75 million vaccines. The remaining 290 million doses will be delivered in the second half of 2021.

“For now, maybe only three or four countries have administered more than 500 thousand jabs per day,” he pointed out.

The ministry has appealed to all stakeholders to invite the public to participate in the vaccination program, including those at least 18 years of age.

Source: Antara News

Semarang, C Java (ANTARA) – Indonesia’s Naval Chief of Staff Admiral Yudo Margono urged workers at the Tanjung Emas Port, Semarang, to receive vaccine jabs to support the government’s endeavors to attain herd immunity projected to make Indonesia COVID-19 free.

“It is well known that seaports are economic centers. There are many kinds of workers, such as port operators and loading and unloading personnel, whose existence is very vital. Hence, they need to be vaccinated, so that economic activities at ports would not stop,” he remarked while reviewing the implementation of a vaccination campaign at the Tanjung Emas Port’s Passenger Terminal here on Thursday.

Moreover, the port is the entry point for ships involved in inter-island export-import and loading and unloading activities. Hence, all involved in the activities should be vaccinated, according to the admiral.

The vaccination campaign at Semarang’s port is part of the inoculation activities organized by the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) by involving healthcare workers from the TNI, Indonesian Police, and seaport authorities. The TNI targets at least one thousand individuals to receive vaccine jabs daily.

“In accordance with the government’s program of one million vaccine recipients per day, this (TNI’s vaccination campaign) is conducted at ports, such as Tanjung Emas, Tanjung Priok, and Belawan,” he stated.

Margono is optimistic that the national vaccination program, targeting one million recipients daily, would run well and smoothly with strict adherence to health protocols.

“With the soaring number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia, people need to be more disciplined in implementing health protocols as a primary need by always wearing masks, maintaining distance, and washing hands,” he remarked.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Industry Ministry has made assurance of sufficient stocks of domestic oxygen concentrators to handle the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the country.

“In essence, there is no scarcity of oxygen concentrators, as their stocks are sufficient to meet the high demand arising from a surge in COVID-19 cases,” Industry Ministry’s spokesman, Febri Hendri, noted in a written statement released on Thursday.

The Industry Ministry held a series of meetings with relevant associations in connection with preparations pertaining to oxygen concentrators.

“At the time when the Industry Ministry made preparations for offering assistance through the provision of oxygen concentrators to India, it had ensured that domestic requirements would be met in the event of a COVID-19 case surge. The number of oxygen concentrators donated to India reached 3,400, or only 0.05 percent of the national stocks. Hence, the stocks are quite sufficient,” he stated.

Moreover, distributors of oxygen concentrators continue to hold stocks that can directly be used in the event of rising demand at hospitals, he revealed.

To keep tabs on the oxygen concentrator requirements at hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, the Industry Ministry will forge coordination with the regional governments to update data of oxygen concentrator requirements, Hendri stated.

“The step is expected to ensure that the supply of oxygen concentrators to hospitals will align with their needs,” he affirmed.

Indonesia recorded the addition of 15,308 daily COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, thereby taking the total tally to 2,033,421, according to the Task Force for COVID-19 Response.

With an additional 7,167 patients recovering from the virus, the total recovery count stood at 1,817,303.

Meanwhile, the number of people succumbing to the infection climbed by 303, bringing the death toll to 55,594.

Jakarta registered the highest number of daily infections at 4,693, followed by 2,910 in West Java, 2,595 in Central Java, 873 in East Java, 694 in Yogyakarta, and 330 in Riau.

The highest number of daily recoveries were recorded at 2,032 in Central Java, followed by 1,191 in Jakarta, 1,030 in West Java, 422 in East Java, 315 in Riau, and 279 in Riau Islands.

The number of active cases, or patients receiving treatment and conducting self-isolation, increased by 7,808, taking the total count to 160,524. The number of suspected COVID-19 cases stood at 124,022.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The East Jakarta District Court sentenced Ummi Hospital President Director Andi Tatat to one year in prison on Thursday over Habib Rizieq Shihab’s swab testing case.

He, however, rejected the verdict of the court’s judiciary panel and filed an appeal to the higher court against it.

The panel of judges, headed by Khadwanto, who read out the verdict during a live-streamed court hearing, disclosed that Tatat was found guilty of misinforming about Shihab’s health condition.

Judge Khadwanto handed Tatat the prison term in connection with the Bogor City-based Ummi Hospital’s swab testing case for violating Article 14 (1) of Law No.1 of 1946 on misinformation.

Khadwanto noted that the judges awarded him a lighter punishment than the prosecutors demanded, as he was not found to have committed crimes in the past, and he had a family to care for.

Tatat’s profession, as a medical doctor, which is highly required during this pandemic situation, was also taking into account during the judges’ verdict, Khadwanto revealed. The convict, however, was awarded the punishment because his misinformation on Shihab’s health condition had stirred anxiety in the community due to his father-in-law’s positive swab test result.

In response to the panel of judges’ ruling, Tatat said he had appealed to the higher court against the guilty verdict.

During the court hearing, the judiciary panel also sentenced Indonesia’s esteemed ulema and founder of the now-defunct Islam Defenders Front (FPI) Habib Rizieq Shihab and his son-in-law, Habib Hanif Alatas, to four years and one year in prison respectively.

Both Shihab and Alatas also rejected the court’s verdict and appealed to the higher court against it.

One of Shihab’s lawyers, Sugito Atmo Prawiro, also appealed to a higher court against the verdict, although the prison term handed out to his client was lighter than the six-year imprisonment demanded by the prosecutors.

On May 27, 2021, the same district court had also sentenced Shihab to eight months in prison and imposed a fine of Rp20 million on him over breaching the country’s health quarantine law in connection with several crowd-drawing events in Jakarta and Megamendung, West Java, last year.

Owing to the case of alleged breach of the government’s health protocols during a series of crowd-gathering events at his home and the FPI headquarters in Petamburan, Central Jakarta, in November 2020, Shihab was detained on December 12, 2020.

Source: Antara News

Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA) – Unidentified gunmen fatally shot five employees of PT Papua Cremona who were working on constructing a bridge over the Kali Wit river in Yahukimo district of Papua province on Thursday.

“That’s right. There is a report on attacks against civilian citizens, and discussions are currently going on to evacuate the victims and take further steps,” Commander of the Military District 1715, Lt Col Christian Irreuw, told ANTARA over phone. (INE)

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – National Police chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo and Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto conducted a sudden inspection (sidak) on the implementation of micro-scale public activity restrictions (PPKM mikro) in DKI Jakarta on Thursday.

The inspections were carried out at Jagakarsa village, South Jakarta; Pondok Kelapa village, Duren Sawit, East Jakarta; and, East Cengkareng village, West Jakarta.

According to Prabowo, strengthening micro-scale public activity restrictions will be an effective way to suppress the spread of COVID-19 in the red and yellow zones in the capital.

“The post of micro-scale public activity restrictions has a very important role in suppressing the rate of development of COVID-19,” he said.

The National Police chief said he hoped that logistical support for the red zone areas, where people are self-isolating, will be taken into account while implementing the restrictions.

Meanwhile, Tjahjanto stressed that all resources for handling COVID-19, such as health workers, PCR test kits, medicines, and places of isolation, be met properly so that COVID-19 can be controlled.

“If all the instruments have been fulfilled, it means that the control of COVID-19 must be optimal,” he said. Earlier, the TNI commander and the National Police chief had observed efforts to control COVID-19 at several points in DKI Jakarta in the wake of a surge in positive cases following Eid Al-Fitr 2021.

On Wednesday (June 23, 2021), Prabowo, Tjahjanto, and Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin visited the command post of micro-scale public activity restrictions in Rorotan, Cilincing, North Jakarta.

They also inspected the command post of micro-scale public activity restrictions in South Gandaria, Cilandak, South Jakarta and Nagrak flats, North Jakarta.

The Nagrak flats have been prepared to serve as a centralized isolation facility for people without symptoms (OTG).

Both Prabowo and Tjahjanto have expressed support for the national COVID-19 vaccination program, which is targeting to administer 1 million doses per day.

They said they are optimistic that the target can be realized through the implementation of mass vaccinations by the TNI and the National Police. (INE)

Source: Antara News

Wamena, Papua (ANTARA) – The Jayawijaya COVID-19 task force announced on Thursday that it has tracked seven new positive cases connected to a coronavirus outbreak at a church in Wamena, the capital of Jayawijaya district, Papua province.

The new patients were infected by a member of the church’s congregation, said task force chief and Jayawijaya district head, John Richard Banua.

“We had seven new positive cases yesterday as a result of our contact tracing efforts,” he said, adding that 29 residents remain hospitalized after contracting the virus.

As of Thursday, the district administration had not decided on whether to temporarily close the Wamena airport or not, as planned by the Papua provincial government, to curb the spread of COVID-19.

“If the provincial government instructs us to conduct a lockdown, we are going to adapt to the policy,” Banua said.

The COVID-19 pandemic initially struck the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019 and thereafter spread across the world, including to nations in the Asia-Pacific region. The Indonesian government announced the nation’s first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020.

Since then, the central and regional governments have striven incessantly to flatten the nation’s coronavirus curve by applying healthcare protocols and social restrictions.

As part of efforts to win the fight against COVID-19, the Indonesian government has also been conducting a nationwide vaccination program to contain infections since January 13, 2021.

Indonesia recently received 10 million doses of bulk vaccines from China’s Sinovac.

As of June 20, 2021, Indonesia has received 104,728,400 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, comprising 94.5 million Sinovac vaccines, 8.228 million AstraZeneca vaccines, and 2 million Sinopharm vaccines.

The Indonesian Health Ministry has estimated that vaccinating the 181.5 million targeted recipients of the nationwide immunization program would take around 15 months.

Apart from the vaccination program, the government had also banned homebound travel, or ‘mudik’, ahead of this year’s Eid al-Fitr holiday season to break the chain of the spread of COVID-19, which has dampened the purchasing power of families across Indonesia.

The government had banned homebound travel last year, too. (INE)

Source: Antara News